


Not Fast Enough

by Mr_Crocodile



Series: Aftermath [4]
Category: Fantastic Four, Godzilla - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Everyone is Dead, Gen, Godzilla Killed them, Silver Surfer is underappreciated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26062408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Crocodile/pseuds/Mr_Crocodile
Summary: A distress signal sent by those closest to him reaches Norrin Radd while far away from earth.
Relationships: Reed Richards/Susan Storm (Fantastic Four)
Series: Aftermath [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742839
Comments: 12
Kudos: 12





	Not Fast Enough

Norrin Radd had gone by many names and titles during the hundred years he had served as Galactus’ Herald, and he had continued to gain them even after his servitude ended. He had been the Sentinel of the Spaceways, the Cosmic wanderer, the Doom-Bringer, the Awaited One, the Sky-rider and many more…

But of all of the titles he had held, Silver Surfer had been the one which had prevailed, at first because it had been given to him by his ravenous liege. But eventually, it had become the name by which his allies and, dare he say,  _ friends _ referred to him. Only then did he truly become fond or even proud of it.

Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer, wasn’t fast enough.

He had never put much thought into the powers which had been granted to him, he had never needed to. The Power Cosmic, or at least the fraction of it he possessed, had such a varied array of uses that he had never, in all the battles he had fought, found himself desiring more. Had he been outmatched by greater foes? More times than he was willing to disclose, he had even been captured on more than one occasion, with his powers even being stolen once. But not even then he had found himself craving more  _ power _ .

Except now, now he felt himself willing to forfeit his very freedom once again just for the chance to be a mere fraction of a fraction faster.

A billion-billion years of the cruelest torment just to be there before it was  _ too late _ .

He who had flow faster than light itself. He who had outran Galactus himself! He wasn’t fast enough.

The distress signal, sent to him from earth near-instantaneously thanks to the scientific prowess of Reed Richards, had found him patrolling a solar system three of the galaxy’s arms away from earth.

He recognized it easily, it was coded with the highest level of severity Richards’ system possessed.

Richards had never before used it, not even when facing the Mad Titan himself.

The Silver Surfer had used up less than a heartbeat of time to decide a course of action and change his course towards his friend’s planet.

But he was not fast enough.

Not even with the full might of the Power Cosmic, with which he was capable of entering hyperspace  _ at will _ .

Not even with his god-like,  _ unbeaten _ , stamina.

By the time he reached Earth’s atmosphere, by the time he set foot in front of what had once been the proud Baxter Tower and understood what had transpired, by the time he sunk to his knees and weeped…

By then, the Fantastic 4, his dearest friends, were long dead.

He had, unmistakably, not been fast enough.

He would then be informed by those who, like him, were capable of surviving the wasteland that was now the city of what had happened.

Norrin still remembered an exhausted Doctor Strange restraining him from futilely trying to chase after the beast which had caused such pain and desolation.

Not much later he would learn of how many others, in and outside of earth had received similar signals from both the Baxter tower and many other places. He learned that many others had, just like him, arrived too late. None of them fast enough.

But he also learned of those, many more, who had arrived on time just to suffer horrible fates.

He shifted through the rubble, not only of the tower, but of any place where the Fantastic 4 and their allies had been seen fighting, even after being warned of the illegality of the action, but there were no bodies to be found.

No… He  _ did _ find bodies, the remains of innocence and fleeing civilians, many burned to such a degree that a mere breeze turned them to dust. And of many of earth’s heroic defenders… But of those Norrin had come to consider almost family… Of them, he only found Ben’s warped and mangled remains underneath a collapsed and unrecognizable building.

Reed, Ben, Susan, Jonathan… all lost.

Many of his other confidants and friends on earth... all lost.

The only respite he found was in being told that young Franklin and Valerie, Reed and Susan’s beloved children, had been kept safe far away from the cataclysm by their Godfather.

Norrin Radd, the man who had stoically witnessed the devovering of dozens of worlds, each home to millions and billions of innocents. Norrin Radd weeped for the death of a mere dozen humans with more sorrow that he thought a being like him was capable of.

The Silver Surfer, herald of the universe’s grandest monster and plight, holder of powers beyond measure, had not been fast enough.

And in his darkest and loneliest moments, amidst his patrolling of the vast emptiness of the galaxy, he feared that even if he had been fast enough, he would not have been  _ strong _ enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for taking so long to publish the next instalment, but I have way to many projects.
> 
> Feel free to offer characters whose POV you'd love to see!  
> And as always...THE FEEDBACK SHALL BE MINE!!


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